1. Researching and Compiling Federal Legislative History Adeen Postar Advanced Legal Research Techniques 929-001 Spring 2012

2. What is a Federal Legislative History? A federal legislative history is a compilation of legislative documents that precede the enactment of a U.S. Public Law It should include documents produced at each stage of the legislative process Documents can include committee reports, debates, earlier texts, floor amendments, congressional hearings, and committee documents

3. How are Legislative Histories Used? Legislative histories are used by federal agencies, attorneys and courts to interpret a law At the very least a legislative history can tell you about the general purpose of a law or a particular title in a law It may be difficult to decipher congressional intent from a legislative history

4. Other ways that Legislative Histories are used To aid a court in its interpretation of statutory language, but only if: ▫Statutory language is unclear on its face ▫In aid of construction….if the meaning to be uncertain to have recourse to the legislative history of the measure and the statements of those in charge of it (US v. Great Northern Ry., 287 U.S. 144 (1932) )BUT “we do not resort to legislative history to cloud a statutory text that is clear.” (Ratzlaf v. US, 510 U.S. 135, 147-148 (1994)) To track a pending bill as it moves through Congress ▫By lobbyists and other issue advocates to track bills of interest to their clients

5. More on Statutory Interpretation See Statutory Interpretation” General Principles and Recent Trends (CRS 2008) at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/97-589.pdf http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/97-589.pdf Leading treatise is Statutes and Statutory Construction 6 th ed. (Reserve KF 425.S25) 9 vols and on Westlaw See also Executive Order 12988, 61 Fed. Reg. 4729 (February 5, 1996), reprinted in 28 U.S.C. Sec. 519 which directs agencies to “make every reasonable effort to ensure” that proposed legislation is in “clear” language.

7. Library Holdings Union List of Legislative Histories, 7 th Ed., Washington, D.C.: Law Librarians’ Society of DC (2000). KF4.U55KF4.U55 Nancy Johnson, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories, William Hein & Co., 2000—. Biennial. KF42.2 1979 (Also available on HeinOnline)KF42.2 1979HeinOnline Bernard Reams, Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Press (1994). Out- of-Print. KF42.2 1994 KF42.2 1994 Legislative Histories Indexed Guide, Englewood, Colo.: Information Handling Services, 1977. KF 42 1977KF 42 1977 CIS Annual Legislative Histories, Washington, D.C.: Congressional Information Service, KF49.C62.KF49.C62 Search LEAGLE using keywords

8. Lexis and Westlaw Resources LexisNexis ▫Selected Histories on appropriations, tax and other laws, as well as links from its CIS legislative history abstracts. ▫CIS Legislative Histories, 1970—. (CISLH)CISLH LexisNexis Congressional (Now ProQuest Congressional) ▫Offers Legislative histories for all federal acts since the 91 st Congress, with links to full text legislative documents ▫Available from the Pence Law Library Website > Information Resources, A to Z > LexisNexis Congressional (Now ProQuest Congressional)Pence Law Library Website Information Resources, A to Z LexisNexis Congressional (Now ProQuest Congressional) Westlaw ▫Includes histories from the law firm of Arnold & Porter and links from public laws to select committee reports and other legislative documents since 1974 ▫Premium service contains more than 1800 Government Accountability Office legislative histories. ▫US GAO Federal Legislative Histories (FED-LH)FED-LH

9. Other Electronic Resources HeinOnline: ▫Sources of compiled Legislative Histories DatabaseSources of compiled Legislative Histories Database ▫HeinOnline's U.S. Federal Legislative History Library HeinOnline's U.S. Federal Legislative History Library ▫Numerous legislative histories from published sources as well as the digitized private collection of Covington & Burling LLSDC Legislative Sourcebook has links to 25 legislative histories of U.S. Laws available for free on the internet inLLSDC Legislative Sourcebook Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet THOMAS: many links to legislative history documents (bill texts, committee reports, Congressional Record Debates) in bill reports (coverage varies by date)THOMAS U.S. Department of Commerce Law Library

10. Sources of compiled Legislative Histories Database

11. U.S. Department of Commerce Law Library Legislative Histories

12. US Code Congressional & Administrative News (USSCAN) Published by West since 1941 Access through Westlaw (database: LH)LH Does not reproduce U.S. Code or contain all congressional/administrative news documents Note USCA notes that reference USSCAN legislative histories but they can be misleading/overly brief Good Starting Point, but not inclusive Contains: U.S. public Laws, Presidential Documents, ▫Presidential Signing Statements, 1986— ▫Executive Orders ▫Presidential Proclamations Selected committee reports, with references to companion committee reports Dates of consideration on house and senate floors, 1964— Legislative History Tables, 1964— and indices to Subjects Covered

14. Step One: Introduction of a Bill A bill is introduced by a member of the Senate or House of Representatives A bill may also be introduced by a member of the Presidential Administration who may ask a congressional member to introduce the bill The bill is numbered sequentially and referred to committee(s) GPO may print the bill (including an introductory statement and sometimes the text) in the Congressional Record. Always printed as a “slip” bill.

15. Step Two: Committee Action on Bill Hearings There might be subcommittee hearings and a markup of the bill, related bills or its subject matter Hearings are usually not officially reported for months although prepared statements and unofficial transcripts may be available on committee websites Hearings are noted in the Daily Digest, but not the Congressional Record Markups A markup is where a committee/ subcommittee/conference committee meet to change/iron out differences in the After markup, the committee orders the bill to be reported as amended; although it is not officially reported The committee report will have an explanation and summary

16. Step Three: The Bill is brought up by chamber leadership for floor action The House or Senate considers, debates, amends and passes the bill If legislation is controversial, the House Rules Committee may submit a resolution with specific rules for bill consideration which must be debated and adopted first The Senate will allow unlimited amendments and debate unless the senate: ▫Votes to table the amendment; ▫Agrees to limit debate by unanimous consent; or ▫Agrees to close debate with at least 60% of members invoking cloture

17. Step Four: The Bill/Act is referred to the other chamber of Congress The Bill will be printed as referred by GPO A similar process will occur in the other body (committee and floor consideration) – Engrossed Bill. The other chamber may report and pass its own bill The other chamber may also pass the referred bill deleting all after enacting clause and inserting the language of their own bill Usually they just pass the other chamber’s bill or make a few amendments before sending it back

18. Step Five: Conferees deliberate & come to an agreement If both chambers cannot agree, a conference is requested, accepted and conferees appointed from both chambers The committee on the conference will produce a conference report which is a compromise text accompanied by a joint explanatory statement A conference report is submitted to both chambers and will be published as a House Report and sometimes also as a Senate document or report The Conference Report is debated and agreed to by both chambers

19. Step Six: Ratification/Veto Enrolled version of the bill (Act) is prepared, signed & Sent to the President The enrolled version is not printed but will be available electronically The President has 10 business days to sign, veto, or pocket veto the bill If the President signs, he may prepare a signing statement (Post Legislative History?) The Law becomes effective upon the President’s signature unless specified otherwise The Office of the Federal Register will assign a public law number and statute pages Office of Law Revision Counsel codifies the statute

20. Other Information about the Legislative Process The legislative process on an issue may continue over several Congresses A failed bill may be reintroduced in the next Congress You may need to track multiple bills over several Congresses

21. DIY Compiling Legislative Histories

22. Documents Included in Legislative Histories Presidential Documents ▫Such as Proclamations and Executive Orders/Signing Statements ** Committee reports ▫Most important documents of a legislative History ▫Most reliable and persuasive indication of legislative intent ▫Contains latest version of bill (reported bill) ▫Contains section-by-section bill analysis Floor debate in the Congressional Record ▫Statements by key players most persuasive ▫This is not a verbatim transcript of Congressional debates because legislators amend and revise their statements

23. Documents included in Legislative Histories Committee hearings ▫Testimony by notable players ▫Hearings about proposed legislation are typically the most useful because they often provide information about the purpose or expected effect of legislation ▫Not all legislation has hearings Bills and Amendments ▫Evolution of different bill versions may indicate legislative intent, by inference Committee prints ▫Background research prepared for committee ▫May include valuable statistical analyses or historical research ▫May be annual or special reports to Congress, special studies or Senate treaty documents

24. Where to find Documents Legislative ActivityWhere to find Records Step One: Bill Introduced Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CCH Congress. Index Congressional Bills & Resolutions, 1823-1873 THOMAS Congressional Bills & Resolutions, 1823-1873 THOMAS Step Two: Hearings by Committee CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CCH Congress. Index THOMAS THOMAS Step Three: Committee Recommends Passage Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CCH Congress. Index THOMAS Calendar of House/History of Legislation THOMAS Calendar of House/History of Legislation Step Four: Debates in Chambers Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports Step Five: Chamber Votes Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CQ Weekly Reports CQ Almanac CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index CQ Weekly Reports CQ Almanac House/Senate Journal (Available from LOC and GPO Access)LOC GPO Access THOMAS

25. Step Six: Bill Sent to Conference (if necessary) Congressional Record Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index USCCAN THOMAS THOMAS Step Seven: Presidential Statements CQ Weekly Reports CIS Index Public Papers of the President Compilation of Presidential DocumentsCQ Weekly Reports CIS Index Public Papers of the President Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993-) USCCAN Step Eight: Law Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CQ Almanac CIS Index Calendar of House/History of Legis. Statutes at Large U.S. Code USCCAN CIS Index Calendar of House/History of Legis. Statutes at Large U.S. Code USCCAN Step Nine: Veto Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports Congressional Record CQ Weekly Reports CQ Almanac CIS Index Calendar of House/History of Legis. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (FEDSys) Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993-) CIS Index Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States Compilation of Presidential Documents Step Ten: Overriding Veto Congressional Record (Daily) CQ Weekly Reports Congressional Record (Daily) CQ Weekly Reports CQ Almanac CIS Index House/Senate Journal (Available from LOC and GPO Access) CIS IndexLOC GPO Access THOMAS

26. Compiling Federal Legislative Histories

27. Arrangement of Documents Chronological/reverse-chronological order Detailed Table of Contents Some might be short while others could be many volumes Additional material to consider: unpublished bill drafts, committee markup amendments & descriptions, press releases, draft conference reports, conferee transcripts, news articles, correspondence, and reports from executive agencies or CBO, GAO, OMB and CRS

28. CIS Legislative Histories Index Volume Basis for Compiling Own Legislative History 1970-1983: back of annual abstract has selected legislative history references 1984—: separate volumes with: ▫detailed indexes across congresses with law summaries, ▫committee report abstracts, ▫references to related bills & texts, ▫dates of floor consideration, ▫abstracts of committee consideration, ▫abstracts of committee hearings, ▫Prints, and ▫other material CIS Legislative History on LexisNexis: CISLH or LexisNexis Congressional

29. Obtaining Legislative Documents Follow House and Senate Activity & Websites Track Bills Network/all sides GPO Access Documents starting with 104 th Congress Federal Depositories (Pence Law Library, UMD is regional depository) and the Law Library of Congress/House and Senate Libraries

30. Compiling Federal Legislative Histories

31. THOMAS Should be the first starting point in your research Contains: ▫Bill Summary and Tracking System 1973— ▫Bill Texts, 1989— ▫Congressional Record, 1994— ▫Committee Publications, 1995—

32. FedSys Includes: ▫Congressional Record Index, ▫History of Bills, 1983— ▫History of Bills with page and date cites and bill texts, 1993— ▫Congressional Record, 1994— ▫Committee Reports ▫House and Senate Documents, 1996— ▫Select Committee Prints, 1997— ▫Many congressional committee hearings from recent congresses

33. LexisNexis Boolean operators and allow search across multiple Congresses at once or subdivide individual Congresses based on Session, Chamber, Digest or other characteristics Congressional Record, 1985— (RECORD) ▫BLTRCK, 1989— ▫BLTEXT, 1989— ▫CIS Index/Abstract Service: CISINX, 1970— ▫Committee Reports: CMTRPT, 1990— ▫Selected Committee Prints: CMTPRN, 1995— ▫Federal News : FEDNEW, 1988—

34. Westlaw Advantages: Boolean Operators, Field Searching and the ability to search across congresses Committee Reports that relate to public laws, 1948-1989 (USCCAN) Committee Reports, 1990— Congressional Record (CR), 1985— State Net’s Federal Bill Tracking & Text Service: (BILLTRK-OLD, CONG-BILLTXT) from 1991— Selected Committee Hearing Transcrips & Prepared Testimony: (USPOLTRANS), 1994—; (USTESTIMONY), 1993—; (CONGTMY), July 1995— Public Laws with links to selected committee reports and other LH Documents, 1974—

35. Other Databases Congressional Quarterly: http://www.cq.comhttp://www.cq.com ▫News service; committee schedules; committee markup summaries with extensive archives back to 1989 ▫Bill tracking, bill texts, committee reports & congressional Record files ▫Links to remarks on legislation not noted by other services ▫CQ Weekly Report; CQ Annual Almanac & Other News Services National Journal Group GalleryWatch.com – ▫Bill tracking, bill texts, committee reports, the Congressional Record, and committee schedules ▫Also features a mechanism to compare various versions of bills Federal News Service (FNS): Unofficial Transcripts CQ Transcripts: On Request C-SpanArchives.org: audio/video recordings CapitolPulse.com: audio/video recordings

36. U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection

39. LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional)LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional)

40. Compiling Federal Legislative Histories

41. Finding a Public Law Number Google If you know the USC code section, consult the History Notes following the text of an act in the US Code Annotated, or the US Code Service If you know the subject look in the indexes in the US Code Annotated or US Code Service If you know the name of the act look in Shepard’s Acts and Cases by Popular Name volumes or the Popular Name Table in the USCA or USCS or online in Lexis or Westlaw

42. Finding the Bill Number If you know the public law number you can find the bill number in the margin of the act as published in the Statutes at Large To obtain bill numbers for early Congresses (1 st – 57 th ) look in the Legislative Reference Checklist (available on Hein). Bills are not referenced in the Statutes at Large until after 1903.

43. Finding the bill number

44. Compiling Documents

45. LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional)

46. THOMAS

47. Committee Reports on THOMAS

48. Sample Committee Report

49. Compiling documents

50. Bill Tracking on THOMASTHOMAS

51. Bill Information on THOMASTHOMAS

52. Information about the Bill on THOMASTHOMAS

53. http://www.Govtrack.us

54. FedSysFedSys (Formerly GPO Access)

55. http://www.Metavid.org

56. Congressional Quarterly (CQ.com)

57. http://www.opencongress.org

58. C-Span Legislative/Congressional Resources

60. Locating Committee Reports LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional): Full text of Committee Reports, 1989—.LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) LexisNexis: The Committee Reports file (CMTRPT) contains full-text of House and Senate committee reports from 1990 to present.LexisNexisCMTRPT Westlaw: From 1948 through 1989, the LH database contains only the Congressional Committee Reports reprinted in the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). From 1990 to date, this database contains all congressional committee reports, including reports on bills that did not become law.WestlawLH THOMAS: includes committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.THOMAS The Library of Congress's American Memory Project has reports from 1789 to 1838 online as part of the American State Papers, and from 1833 to 1917 has selected reports online as part of the U.S. Serial Set.Library of Congress's American Memory Project American State PapersU.S. Serial Set. GPO Access - FDsys: includes committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.GPO Access - FDsys FDSys has access through its new digital document platform to reports from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.FDSys USCCAN (Westlaw USCCAN)

61. Locating Committee Prints LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional): This database indexes committee prints from the 21st Congress (1830) to the most recent Congress, and provides full-text of committee prints from the 103rd Congress (1993) to the most recent Congress. The database includes abstracts and indexing for House & Senate Documents from 1970 to current, and indexing for House & Senate Documents from 1789 to 1969.LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) LexisNexis: ▫Committee Prints file (CMTPRN) provides the full-text of selected committee prints from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.CMTPRN ▫The House & Senate Documents file (LEGIS:HSDOCS) has the full text of documents from the 104th Congress (1995) to current.LEGIS:HSDOCS GPO Access - FDsys - includes committee prints from the 105th Congress (1997) to present and House & Senate Documents form the 104th Congress (1995) to the present.GPO Access - FDsys CIS microfiche set: House Documents, Senate Documents, House, Senate, and Joint Conference Committee Prints are available on microfiche as part of this set

62. Locating Bills & Amendments LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) : indexes bills from the 1st Congress to the most recent Congress, and provides full-text and status of bills from the 101st Congress (1989) to present.LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) THOMAS includes the full-text of bills from the 101st Congress (1989) to the present.THOMAS GPO Access - FDsys the full-text of bills from the 103rd Congress (1993) to the present.GPO Access - FDsys LexisNexis - Offers full-text of bills introduced in the House and Senate since the 101st Congress, and tracking of congressional bills for the same time period. From the main Lexis search page, select "Legislation & Politics," select the subcategory "US Congress," then select the subcategory "Full Text of Bills - Historical.LexisNexis Westlaw - Offers full-text of bills from the 104th Congress to date in the following databases: CONG-BILLTXT (for the 110th Congress), CONG-BILLTXT109, CONG-BILLTXT108, CONG- BILLTXT107, CONG-BILLTXT106, CONG-BILLTXT105, and CONG-BILLTXT104.Westlaw CONG-BILLTXTCONG-BILLTXT109CONG-BILLTXT108CONG- BILLTXT107CONG-BILLTXT106CONG-BILLTXT105CONG-BILLTXT104 ▫Bill Tracking for the current session is available in the database US-BILLTRK and for older bills (from 1991) in BILLTRK-OLD. (Note: BILLTRK-OLD combines federal bills with state bills).US-BILLTRKBILLTRK-OLD The Library of Congress hosts databases of House Bills & Resolutions (from the 6th to the 42nd Congress (1799 to 1872)), Senate Bills & Resolutions (from the 16th to 42nd Congress (1819 to 1872)), and Senate Joint Resolutions (from the 18th to the 42nd Congress (1823- 1872)).House Bills & ResolutionsSenate Bills & ResolutionsSenate Joint Resolutions FDSys has access through its new digital document platform to bills from the 103th Congress (1993) to present.FDSys

63. Locating Committee Hearings on Westlaw USTESTIMONY contains selected transcripts of oral or written statements from US congressional committee hearings from 1993 - 1995; full coverage begins in 1996.USTESTIMONY USPOLTRANS contains transcripts of testimony from selected US congressional committee hearings since 1994.USPOLTRANS CONGTMY contains congressional testimony, transcripts, and official documents from the committees of the Congress from 1995 to current, as provided by NewsRoom.CONGTMY

64. LexisNexis Resources for Locating Committee Hearings LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional): This subscription Internet database includes the full-text for only a limited number of recent hearings.LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) LexisNexis Databases: ▫Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony (CNGTST): includes written statements of witnesses testifying before congressional committees since 1993.CNGTST ▫Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Hearings Summaries (LEGIS;HEARNG): contains recent transcripts of congressional hearings, individual written testimony of witnesses and detailed reports of select committee hearings.LEGIS;HEARNG ▫ FDCH Political Transcripts (POLTRN): contains transcripts of congressional hearings since 1995.POLTRN ▫Federal News Service (FEDNEW): includes a few congressional hearings since 1988 that relate to major news stories.FEDNEW ▫National Narrowcast Network Transcripts (NNNTRN): provides transcripts of select congressional hearings from October 1993 through July 2000.NNNTRN

65. Other Resources for Locating Hearings GPO Access - FDsys : Contains a limited number of hearings from the 105th Congress (1997) through the most recent Congress are available at GPO Access.GPO Access - FDsys House Committee Hearings - Selected recent house hearings are organized by committee and available at this site and individual committee websites.House Committee Hearings FDSys has access through its new digital document platform to hearings from the 105th Congress (1997) to present.FDSys

66. Finding the Congressional Record LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional): Includes the Congressional Record and its predecessor from the 1 st Congress (1789) to the most recent.LexisNexis Congressional (now Proquest Congressional) LexisNexis: The Congressional Record file (RECORD) contains the Congressional Record from the 99th Congress (1985) to the most recent.RECORD Westlaw: The Congressional Record is available in the CR database from the 99th Congress (1985) to the most recent.CR THOMAS: includes the Congressional Record from the 101st Congress (1989) to the most recent.THOMAS GPO Access - FDsys : includes the Congressional Record from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.GPO Access - FDsys FDSys: has access through its new digital document platform to the Congressional Record from 1994 to present.FDSys HeinOnline: Contains the Congressional Record and its predecessors, 1789-2005 and Congressional Record Daily editions to date (also has Congressional Record Daily to Bound Volume Locator)Congressional Record Congressional Record Daily to Bound Volume Locator

67. Useful Links House of Representatives Senate THOMAS: Legislative Information on the Internet GPO Access - FDsys Records of Congress at the National Archives Project Vote Smart C-SPAN Online: Congressional Glossary C-SPAN Online: Congressional Vote Search C-SPAN Online: Congressional Directory C-SPAN Online: Congress Resources Congressional Record Index (Daily) History of Bills

68. Upcoming Legislative Activity House Whip Page @ http://majoritywhip.house.gov/http://majoritywhip.house.gov/ View current activity on floor at http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx Senate http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/g_three_ sections_with_teasers/legislative_home.htm and http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_ sections_with_teasers/calendars.htm http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/g_three_ sections_with_teasers/legislative_home.htm http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_ sections_with_teasers/calendars.htm